Careless disposal of ‘smoking material’ sparked fatal Allston fire

Thursday, May 2, 2013 -- Anonymous (not verified)

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Thursday, May 2, 2013

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Matt Stout

The early morning fire that ripped through an Allston rooming house, where a Boston University student was found dead, was caused by the careless disposal of “smoking material,” city fire officials said today.

The blaze at the Linden Street home started Sunday in the area of an interior staircase that was blocked off from the first floor, but was an “open space” that could be accessed by the stairs to the second floor from the rear of the 2 1/2-story house, according to a fire department statement.

Fire officials said in a statement they determined the cause through physical evidence, burn patterns and interviews, though MacDonald declined say what witnesses may have told investigators.

Binland Lee, a 22-year-old marine biology major who was slated to graduate this year, was found dead in an attic apartment.

Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney David Bradley, a member of the office’s senior trial unit and a one-time arson point prosecutor, has been assigned to the investigation and will be working with Boston police detectives, according to a statement from District Attorney Daniel Conley’s office.

“We investigate every unattended death to determine whether charges are warranted against any person in any capacity,” Conley said. “This case is no exception. We’re not prejudging the case and the probe is in its very early stages. We’ll follow the evidence wherever it leads, and we’ll apply the law fairly to the facts before we make a charging decision.”

Conley’s office noted that the criminal probe into Lee’s death will go beyond the investigation into the cause and origin of the fire.

The city’s Inspectional Services Department issued three violations against building owner Anna Belokurova for an “unsafe structure” after the fire that ravaged the building, and for failing to obtain building permits to change its occupancy from two-family to “19 lodgers,” and for illegally converting the basement.

But the city did not cite the landlord for having an attic apartment that lacked a secondary egress, which is required by current building codes, because it was legal in 1992 when a permit was granted to convert the building to a two-family and the attic apartment was “grand­fathered in,” said ISD commissioner Bryan Glascock.

Belokurova’s lawyer said in a statement the house has been inspected “many times” in the 10 years she’s owned it.

Attorney Frank Fragomeni Jr., said that she would “continue to provide full cooperation to all agencies, authorities and investigators until the cause of this tragedy is determined.”